甘之如飴

简 甘之如饴 · 繁 甘之如飴
Mandarin · pinyin gān zhī rú yí

Meanings

  1. lit. as sweet as syrup (idiom, from Book of Songs); to endure hardship gladly
  2. a glutton for punishment
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Characters in this entry

甘
gān · sweetness; sweet, tasty
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
如
rú · if, supposing; as if; like, as
飴
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饴
yí · sweet-meats; sweet-cakes; syrup
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–2–2 · gan1 zhi1 ru2 yi2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

甘之如飴 · find source passages ↗ · 甘之如饴 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gam1 zi1 jyu4 ji4

Cantonese word readings for 甘之如飴. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (simile) to gladly endure hardship

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

甘之如飴 · gan1 zhi1 ru2 yi2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 74,228
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record甘之如飴 甘之如饴 [gan1 zhi1 ru2 yi2] /lit. as sweet as syrup (idiom, from Book of Songs); to endure hardship gladly/a glutton for punishment/